Dear Editor,
I observed that the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority Mr Khurshid Sattaur seems to be responding to all the critics.
Let us look at the facts. Who are the policy makers that made the decision to instruct tax reforms using VAT? The Government of Guyana. The lead architect in this endeavour would be the His Excellency the President and his two ministers of Finance and other relevant officials of the Ministry of Finance. Mr. Sattaur is not an officer of the Ministry of Finance nor is the GRA a department of the Ministry of Finance. Thus who has to defend this decision to institute VAT in Guyana by law? The President and his Ministers. However, I am not seeing Jennifer Webster and Jennifer Westford and Harrynarine Nawbatt and Shaik Baksh hitting the air wave responding to the critics. Why are they not on a campaign to ensure that the policy of VAT is supported and the critics are silenced as they are doing now with casino gambling? These are the men and women who sat in Cabinet and supported VAT and went to Parliament and voted for VAT and hence this is their law and they must defend it, not Mr. Sattaur. Mr. Sattaur’s role is to implement VAT – full stop.
The GRA is a fully autonomous body that has its own Board of Directors. Implementation means execution, discharging duties, performing duties. That duty is to ensure that the government’s wishes are executed whether the VAT is good or not. This brings me to the essence of Mr. Sattaur’s weaknesses. The GRA Czar’s attack on the latest critic of the VAT, the PNC, by saying their statement on the VAT is “careless and ill-informed” is most unfortunate. It is not his place to say if VAT is good or not. His role is to ensure that everyone is aware of VAT, ensure that all are respecting the laws on VAT, all are charging VAT where relevant and all are keeping records where relevant. His role is to ensure that his officers collect the moneys where relevant. Nothing else. If all 750,000 persons in this country criticise VAT, that is not Mr. Sattaur’s problem or concern, it is the concern of the ministers of government, the PPP members of Parliament and most importantly, His Excellency and they are competent enough to deal with their critics, they do not need Mr. Sattaur to defend them. I am convinced that Mr. Sattaur is confused with his role and this is causing tremendous stress on the staff of the GRA and the public since every day spent “cussing out” a critic of VAT, is one day less spent on the proper implementation of the VAT. Do we see the Deputy at GRA, Mr. Clement Sealy in the papers condemning Mr. Gouveia and the PNC? No he is busy at his desk trying to implement VAT. That is what Mr. Sattaur should be doing.
My concern is that Mr. Sattaur is being set up by the government as the “flack” guy for VAT when this is their thing. He is getting too personally involved in a public matter and this says a lot about his professionalism. My counsel to him is to do his job and implement VAT and let the Ministers of Finance and Trade and HE the President deal with the VAT critics. VAT is their thing and Mr. Sattaur’s thing is to ensure that VAT is implemented.
Yours faithfully,
Harish Singh
Editor’s note
Surely the Commissioner should respond where the questions relate to the technical implementation of VAT. On issues of policy (e.g. the rate of VAT, stock deduction allowed) the minister should respond.
